Snarlfist growls at the bureaucrat and then attempts to get the get the man talking.
"rhnagh, Quite a tasty lunch you've got there, did you pack it yourself or pick it up nearby?"
[dice=Deception]1d20+9
"For lunch, we had Honey Spice Couscous teleported to our desks from the Bandeshar's cafeteria demiplane. It's excellent. As is all the food we are served here. By the way, I'm Igrigi Lokar."
He seems like the friendly sort, willing to talk. "What a fascinating skull!"
He instantly bonds with Domwurd. "I'm a retired Pathfinder myself — shhh! Don't tell anyone! It's much safer working here, and I have access to some of the libraries inside the Bandeshar. They're my favorite haunts, when I'm not reading my copies of the Pathfinder Chronicles that is!"
"Hey yeah I remember now! I enjoyed speaking with you when I visited Nexus House’s libraries! Wow, I sure got around."
Igrigi adjusts his spectacles and looks closely at the talking skull. "Hmmm… I don't meeting any talking, pink-eyed skulls at Nexus House…"
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Grams looks a bit dismayed at the idea someone would choose safety over exploring. Though she imagines Igrigi's mother and father are relieved, if they're still alive.
"She may not have been a skull then. We're not sure," Grams says. She can't help but wonder suddenly just how long Zykyryz has been dead and what happened to make her that way. Was that connected to the memory loss? She hadn't thought so initially, but now...
"Ahh. I talked with many people at Nexus house; what was your skull friend called back then? What did she look like? Did she have any particular title or profession of note?"
Hmmm… yes there was an arclord who I talked to at Nexus house. I remember, they're Uncommon after all."
"What was their name… hmmm…" He adjusts his classes. "Really, I'm good with names. But it's quite strange, I can't seem to remember them, or what we discussed! It's just as you say, Domwurd!"
So that was the headquarters of a nation… hardly a brain trust if you ask me…"
"Wait, Grams! I've had a sudden flash of insight! Let's head North, just a few blocks. there's a building there. Let's go!"
You head to a relatively nondescript building north of the Bandeshar, providing a lovely view of the massive palace as well as several towers that float suspended above the city.
There's no guard or doorperson, so you step inside to a hallway. Discordant noise emanates from one of the rooms. You peek inside and see a teacher leading a group of children — but these students are mainly comprised of ancestries most people would find "monstrous." A Lamaia stands on her hind legs banging on a set of drums kit with four drumsticks, a derhii blows on a harmonica and shakes the tambourines attached to his wings, a young sahuagin maniuplates a hydraulophone, a pukwudgie prances and rustles her quills against a gong, a minotaur jams on a tiny ukulele… and so on.
The teacher, a finely dressed young man in wizard robes, stops waving about his conductor's baton and stares at you. The music clashes to a halt.
"Welcome to the Starry-Eyed Academy of Music and Magic. Is there something I can help you with?"
"Are you thinking of joining? A poppet would be most welcome, and you might even qualify for a scholarship, thanks to the generous endowment for magical and monstrous children that we have been granted by a famous Arclord of Nex!"
They proceed to demonstrate with a piece that us exactly as beautiful as you imagine a group of children with random instruments might play. However, Haggra, trained in performance, can tell they all have talent.
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”Could we maybe try playing something together?” asks Haggra, his expression obviously one of pain. ”There should be some order to music… a mathematical perfection!”
He sighs, and starts concentrating on pursuing a lead, of this unknown Arclord.
He will also be pursuing Aslynn, if not previously stated.
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Grams beams. Children are the purview of her goddess, and this scene makes her happy. She hums along with the music, head bobbing and foot tapping -- though horribly out of time. She never had much time for music herself and unfortunately her boys' interests went in other directions. She's almost tempted to get Zykyryz out and drum on the skull -- headbanging music, she supposes -- but that seems like it would be inappropriate.
Eventually, at the next break, she asks, "Which Arclord is funding these scholarships?"
"How fascinating," Domwurd says, listening to the cacophany of sound. "If I were younger, I'd have loved to have learned an instrument. Do you think it's too late?"
"I'm not sure how old you are, but the large range here at the Starry-Eyed Conservatorium is for younger people."
”Could we maybe try playing something together?” asks Haggra, his expression obviously one of pain. ”There should be some order to music… a mathematical perfection!”
He sighs, and starts concentrating on pursuing a lead, of this unknown Arclord.
He will also be pursuing Aslynn, if not previously stated.
Together you practice another tune, with Grams adding her own special notes to the cacophony and Haggra adding some mathematical precision, which the instructor appreciates.
Eventually, at the next break, she asks, "Which Arclord is funding these scholarships?"
"Of course! They've made a huge impact on so many lives! It's… it's… it's…"
He blushes. "I can't seem to remember. Children, who is the benefactor of our school?"
The children just stare back and fiddle with their musical instruments.
"Ahhh this is embarrassing! I can't remember their name!"
headbanging music, she supposes -- but that seems like it would be inappropriate.
"AHHH! I feel like someone reached into my skull and stole my joke! The pun that never was."
Zykyryz gets distracted again.
"Hey what's that over there? Look, is that a flyer?"
You see a flyer with a mic and magical, glowing neon letters.
OPEN MIC!
Scorpia's Grotto
"Maybe we should go… but first, who's that guy over there? She turns and points out a man with a mop and a bucket. "Can we talk to him too?"
The teachers smiles. "Scorpia's Grotto was founded by one of the first students. She has a good relationship with our benefactor. Perhaps she will remember?"
The teacher looks at the janitor, who done;t seem bothered by the music. "Feel free to talk to him, but be aware and sensitive to the fact that he is deaf."
You communicate with the janitor. He seems to remember a bit more than the others.
"I remember our Conservatorium’s benefactor. Well, not their name. But they spent a good deal of time at a place called the Sunmist Stele" He takes you to the window and points up into the sky. "See that pale marble tower floating up there, to the left of that little floating palace? About a thousand feet up? Yeah, that's the one. The Sunmist Stele."
"Yeah, that sounds familiar! There's a broom closet up on top of this building. We gotta go there too. The broom closet. Trust me!"
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"It will be fine, Princess, dear," Grams reassures the poppet. "We'll be right with you. There's nothing to fear in the dark. You just need to let your eyes adjust."
Thanks to her dwarven vision, Grams realizes, she doesn't really know what it's like to be in the dark if she doesn't want to be, by closing her eyes.
When you open the door an ironing board falls from the doorframe, nearly bouncing harmlessly off Kralgang's head!
"BWAAAHAHAHAHAA" So close"
Dust swirls around as a portal whirls open next to a shelf full of old cleaning supplies.
Zykyryz tells you this will take you directly to Sunmist Stele. Inside, next to the cleaning potions, are also two lesser healing potions.
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Grams frowns in concentration. "I think you're right, Haggra. The portal's here. And that seems like an awfully useful coincidence, especially if Zykyryz brought us up here just for the joke. I don't think there's any reason to assume whatever is happening won't have affected the first student at Scorpia's Grotto, so the Stele seems likely to be more useful."
Indeed there is, and Princess watches as her friends step through one by one, vanishing in a swirl of color. She does as well.
You're pulled through space, up through the sky and to an open-air courtyard a thousand feet above Quantium. From this vantage point, you can view the whole city beneath you, including small clouds of dust in the wake of the two massive Quantium golems that eternally patrol the outskirts of the capitol.
Its walls sport etchings of enormous humanoid-shaped beings chiseled out of a mountain by thousands of tiny workers.
A set of double doors in front of you bears an inscription of an eye with diamond-like facets.
Domwurd, Detecting magic, knows there is magic in the vicinity.
"Pink isn't just a color. It's an attitude too."
Zykyryz’s eye sockets light up for a moment, causing the doors to silently swing open.
A teleportation circle occupies the center of this chamber, its runes providing gentle light to the entire space. Twelve sealed glass cases filled with nearly transparent mist surround it. Floating inside of each is an ancient scroll or tome yellowed with age and barely legible. Attached to the side of each case is a short chain connected to a thin silver rod tipped with a stylized hand, its index finger extended.
There are double doors opposite this.
Domwurd detects magic in here as well. There are more diamond inscriptions of eyes on the wall, and the tome cases are clearly magical.
Sunset takes a moment to think. Two things:
A person can use the rods to turn the delicate pages of the books without harming them.
She feels like she is being watched.
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Grams turns her head from the door to Zykyryz and back as it opens at her ... unusual ... password. She can't help but looking back and forth a few times before finally shrugging and entering.
"Well, it's clear you must have been here before, because there's no way you could have just guessed that," she murmurs.
Keeping her axe firmly in hand, she looks over the area. "Maybe we should see what the books say? Perhaps they'll give us a name."
The books are written in languages none of you know.
”Of course you numbskulls need a genius Arclord of Nex to read for you!”
The texts are mostly written in the Celestial and Requian languages, concerning the birth of new souls in Creation’s Forge, also known as the Positive Energy Plane.
One scroll mentions that a portal to this plane resides at the heart of Golarion’s sun.